+Muddler Posted March 22, 2005 Share Posted March 22, 2005 I see where some of the retailers show the Explorist 500 as "In Stock" Has anyone got their hands on one yet? I am wanting to know some of the final production specs. I have handled the E-300 and really liked its size and the clearity of the display. I wanted to hear from a user about the display in bright sunsight, the Batteries it uses (can you use 2As), the Antenna type (patch or qual) and have you compared it to another GPSr. Muddler Link to comment
+JohnnyVegas Posted March 22, 2005 Share Posted March 22, 2005 The antenna is a patch, The li Ion battery is repalceable, they also make a 12 volt adapter cord. You might Magellan a call 800 669-4477 re AA's Link to comment
+Milbank Posted March 22, 2005 Share Posted March 22, 2005 JohnnyVegas, Do you have one? The li Ion battery is repalceable Replaceable with 2 AA's? I would also like to know how the memory works. When you search for a waypoint can you search the memory card and what's loaded into the gps at the same time. Link to comment
+Doc-Dean Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 I've seen stores advertise the eXporist 600 but according to magellan's website it hasn't been released yet. I figure the stores are just taking advanced orders (oh and your money too!) Link to comment
+Stunod Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 JohnnyVegas, Do you have one? The li Ion battery is repalceable Replaceable with 2 AA's? I would also like to know how the memory works. When you search for a waypoint can you search the memory card and what's loaded into the gps at the same time. According to Magellan, the Li-Ion batteries are NOT replaceable with AA's. Link to comment
+JohnnyVegas Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 (edited) I have a 500 on order. I have not got any information re AAs Edit to add: I am not concerend with using AAs in the explorist, I use a Meridian Gold to get to the cache are and then I use a hand held to find the cache, the only time I use the Meridan is if I am just doing a couple a cache in a day or if i a just going for a FTF. I have never had a need to run a handheld for more that 4 or 5 hours at any one time, I am retired so I just don't even go outside utill my 12 nooon berakfast Even if was to only an Explorist 500 it would be hooked up to my trucks 12 volt outlet anyway. As far as the memory and the SD card my guess is the it will include features in the merideans. With the Meridian you have to load the waypoints you want to work with from the SD card. When you are done with them you just delete them form I guess what you could call the currnet memory in the GPS, this does not delete them from the memory card. In order to delete them from the SD card you have to access the memory card. When you load them onto the GPS they go to the GPS memory, not the card, to save them to the card you first have to access the card andthen you have an option to save current waypoins and routes to the card. You can also load maps and waypoints onto the card with a card reader, I have not tried loading waypoints onto the card because it only take a few seconds going direct to the Meridain, with the USB conection on the expolorist the card reader may no longer be needed anyway. With the Meridian you can store your waypoint on the memory card in small files if you would like to, In my Meridian gold I have around 3,000 waypoints stored. These are in files of 80 to 100 caches, each file is for a different city that I cache in. If I want to look up a geocache I just bring up the file for the city I am in and I only have through the caches for the city, sure a Garmin may hold up to 1,000 caches, but do you have any idea how long it would take to go through that many when looking for one. Now the file can also be sorted by cache type, or difficulty or terrain, how ever you would like to save them. My guess is that the explorist work in much the same way. The first thing I plan on doing is checking out the geocache manager. Edited March 23, 2005 by JohnnyVegas Link to comment
+Muddler Posted March 26, 2005 Author Share Posted March 26, 2005 I am seeing more and more sites showing the Explorist 500 as being " In Stock" Is there anyone out there that can answer questions about the E500, based on having used one? Up until now I have been using a borrowed GPS and this will be my first purchase. I really hate to only rely on the advertising Hype. Let the rest of us know what you think if you have your hands on one of these new babies. As I said earlier I have handled the E300 in a store and really like what I saw but this was hardly more then a touchy feelly thing and not an actual field test. Muddler Link to comment
+tirediron Posted March 26, 2005 Share Posted March 26, 2005 The buttons still look too small on ALL of the Explorist line for all but the daintiest hands to me... Link to comment
+Muddler Posted March 26, 2005 Author Share Posted March 26, 2005 They are pretty small, I will admit that. But I did not have any real problems in using the e300 that I played with in the store. I have used an older Magellan Green up to this time, which has a pretty good size group of keys. But I really liked the palm size of the E300 and as I said it was not a problem. I wear a large to extra large size glove and was able to get the job done. Muddler Link to comment
+EScout Posted March 26, 2005 Share Posted March 26, 2005 The buttons still look too small on ALL of the Explorist line for all but the daintiest hands to me... I handled a 100 and 200 in a store today for the first time. Yikes!!!! the buttons are supper small and it looks like it will be difficult to use one handed like I do with my Meridian. Not happy about this. I am expecting my 500 next week and will post some initial observations. Link to comment
+Muddler Posted March 27, 2005 Author Share Posted March 27, 2005 I tried the "one hand" manipulation of the keys while holding with the same hand because that is how I operate the Magellan Green I am currently using. I cache with a walking stick and hate to stop so I can use both hands. I didn't have any real problem using the E300 I tested and think that it will become easier as I practice with it. It seemed just a little awkward at first but its just different from what I am used to using. The keys are small but there there was ample space between the keys to switch between screen and not hit the other keys. What I found was that because of the small size it was actually easier to hold the E300 in my hand and manipulate the keys without feeling like I may drop the unit. Cheers Muddler Link to comment
+briansnat Posted March 27, 2005 Share Posted March 27, 2005 (edited) f I want to look up a geocache I just bring up the file for the city I am in and I only have through the caches for the city, sure a Garmin may hold up to 1,000 caches, but do you have any idea how long it would take to go through that many when looking for one. About 5 seconds. You don't have to go through all the waypoints to find one. Just key in the name and it goes directly there. Actually you don't even have to key in the entire name because as soon as you hit the first letter all waypoints beginning with that letter pop up and the list gets pared down with each additonal letter entered. Edited March 27, 2005 by briansnat Link to comment
+Milbank Posted March 27, 2005 Share Posted March 27, 2005 About 5 seconds. You don't have to go through all the waypoints to find one. Just key in the name and it goes directly there. Actually you don't even have to key in the entire name because as soon as you hit the first letter all waypoints beginning with that letter pop up and the list gets pared down with each additonal letter entered. Thats one thing I really like about my Legend. The Explorist 100 will only let me scroll through the whole list of waypoints (POI) or bring them up with the ones closest to me listed first. I'm hoping the Explorist 400,500,600 let you search waypoints like the Etrex's do. Link to comment
Keystone Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Moving this topic to the proper forum. Link to comment
+jacques0 Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Milbank...Are you sure you can't go right to the POI desired? When you're at the Menu>>Points of Interest screen, move the joystick right or left, then click on it. In the explorists that changes the search option from "Nearest" to "Alphabetical". Now, you can enter the 1st couple letters of your poi then click Enter to bring up the poi you're looking for. Review page 7 of the basic manual that came with the unit. Page 28 of the downloadable .pdf manual mentions the alphabetical search, but then fails to talk about it (shame, Thales!). Bear in mind that the POIs are named by default as POI001, POI002, POI003, etc., unless you've named them something distinctive like "Car", "Camp", "Cache3", etc. Link to comment
+Milbank Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Looks like I got to get a 500 to do this. That's still good to know as I may just get one. Thanks, Link to comment
+Milbank Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Page 28 of the downloadable .pdf manual mentions the alphabetical search, Were are you downloading the manual? Link to comment
+jacques0 Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 QUOTE Page 28 of the downloadable .pdf manual mentions the alphabetical search, Where are you downloading the manual? Go to this link After playing around a bit, I've found that you're correct in that the alphabetical search function does not work for "My Points of Interest", but only for POIs on the background map (in the 200). When in the alphabetical mode, it simply arranges "My Points of Interest" in alphabetical order, but does not present the keyboard screen to allow the user to quickly locate a specific POI. For the background map, you can search for POIs. I apologize if I misled anyone with my previous post. Link to comment
SwissTeam Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 Here is the link to the Explorists 500 user manual. http://rapidshare.de/files/1053699/User_Manual.pdf.html Link to comment
+Hemlock Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 Since this thread and this other thread have become duplicates of each other, I'm closing this smaller one. Feel free to continue the discussion over there. Link to comment
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